In modern Finnish, noki means soot, and nokia is an inflected plural, although this form of the word is rarely, if ever, used.

[6] After the sable was hunted to extinction in Finland, the word was applied to any dark-coated fur animal, such as the marten, which are found in the area to this day.

[11] Nokia was the setting of one of the largest battles in the Club War, a 1596–1597 peasant uprising against feudal lords in Finland, which was then part of the Kingdom of Sweden.

[12] The peasants, armed with clubs, took up residence in Nokia Manor and won several skirmishes against the feudal cavalry, but were decisively defeated by Klaus Fleming on 1–2 January 1597.

[14] These two companies and Suomen Kaapelitehdas Oy (Finnish Cable Works Ltd)[15][16] amalgamated in 1967 forming Nokia Corporation.

The rubber works still operate in Nokia as Nokian Tyres[18][19] and originally in 1880 established paper mill[20] as Essity.

The city has repeatedly been asked to commemorate the company it gave birth to, but it has always declined, on the grounds that mobile phones were never produced there.

The largest companies are AGCO Power,[27] Nokian Tyres, Purso,[28] Patria Aviation[29] and Essity paper mill.

For example, Eric Sykes' The Big Freeze and Finnish TV production Korpelan Kujanjuoksu The following graph shows the population development of the town since 1964.